Pushback rule a bane for air passengers

Mumbai: The woes of air passengers seem to have grown with the introduction of the new pushback rule.
On November 19, a Jet Konnect Mumbai-Ahmedabad flight (9W 2049) which was to take off at 1.25pm, missed its slot and got delayed by more than an hour.
“The airline made us board the flight at 12.45pm saying that they did not want to miss the allotted slot. But even after 45 minutes, the flight did not move,” said Anita Malhotra, 35, a passenger.
“They announced that we had missed the slot. It didn’t end there; then they told us that we were actually waiting for a group of 20 passengers who were to arrive from London and this was their connecting flight.” The passengers were made to wait for another half an hour before the flight took off.
On November 15, a Spicejet Mumbai-Kolkata flight (SG 804) was to take-off at 6.50pm but left at 11pm. All the 350 passengers who were seated inside the aircraft had no idea that they would be stuck for five hours. Sometime after boarding, the pilot announced that they would not be able to take off due to bad weather. Later, however, the delay was attributed to the airline missing its slot.
According to Air Passengers Association of India (APAI), there has been an increase in such cases since the past few days. Reddy added that the new pushback rules whereby airlines have to stick to the slots allotted to them are harming the passengers.
“With the main runway 09-27 at Mumbai airport undergoing repairs since November 1, only one runway, 14-32, is available for operation. In such a scenario, the airlines which miss their slots have to wait for hours together for their turn. They cannot afford to deplane the passengers as they can get the slot within 20 minutes or it can extend upto an hour,” said an official from a private airline.
27/11/10 Naveeta Singh/Daily News & Analysis

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Categories: Airports Nov 2010